Team USA flag football star Darrell Doucette is walking back his comments about Patrick Mahomes. On Saturday, the Team USA flag football team destroyed two teams of NFL stars in the Fanatics Flag Football Classic.
Much of the conversation around the game has been about whether NFL players participating in the Olympics for the flag football team would make sense, given the struggles that were seen during the Classic. For many of the players, such as Doucette, they wanted to prove their talent and their value two years out from the Olymics.
In 2024, Doucette even went out of his way to insinuate that his ability to play flag football was so elite that even an NFL great such as Patrick Mahomes wouldn't be able to outshine him.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I'm better than Patrick Mahomes because of my IQ of the game. I know he's right now the best in the league. I know he's more accurate. I know he has all of these intangibles. But when it comes to flag football, I feel like I know more than him.”
In 2024 coments to The Guardian, Doucette also expressed his displeasure with NFL fans feeling as if their position in the league makes them perfect to join Team USA.
“I think it’s disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they’re able to just join the Olympic team because of the person that they are – they didn’t help grow this game to get to the Olympics,” Doucette explained. “Give the guys who helped this game get to where it’s at their respect.”
In recent comments on several media outlets, he's clarified what he meant and even walked back the statement in its entirety. He spoke about the topic again on The Rich Eisen Show on ESPN.
“What I initially truly meant was, by y’all just giving a name, they shouldn’t automatically just be able to come and take our territory from us because of the names. Like they’ve got to come out and learn the game and I think that was one of our missions as Team USA, was to go out and compete with these guys and show that we’re just as talented on this Flag Football field, even though we know they’re the greatest athletes out there.”
He added, “If they took the time out and learned it and everything else, yeah, they’d probably would put 12 or 10 guys on the Olympic team from the NFL. Not taking anything away from any of those guys, but I was just standing up for myself.”
